Bully Beatdown
OK, I’ve been pretty vocal that MTV went to hell by the time of the boy bands and the Disney girls in the late 90′s. If anything it’s just gotten worse being little different from the pseudo-reality and game shows that one finds all over syndication. The Real World became unoriginal over a decade ago and its few interesting shows, like Tom Green or Jackass also are from long ago. I have to admit though I found by accident an MTV show that is original and hilarious: Bully Beatdown.
The basic idea is that some people who’ve been bullied get contacted by MTV and they get an experienced professional mixed martial arts fighter to challenge the bully to a fight. 3 minutes of grappling and 3 minutes of striking. There are $10,000 at stake, 5 for each type of round. In the first every tap out loses the bully $1000 which goes to the bullied. In the second round if they last 3 minutes they get it all.
The episodes I watched the bullies did surprisingly well. In one episode the bully got $3000 from the grappling in the other $5000. (There were some obvious strategies to avoid the tap outs since it lasts only 3 minutes) However by then they are so exhausted that they get their clock cleaned in the second round. Once again in both cases the bullies survived the full 3 minutes — but they were so worked over they probably would have been better off giving up.
I’m not sure why, but this is one of those shows that really struck me as hilarious. Sort of turning the tables on the bullies. Yes, except in one hilarious case, the bullies still come out making a lot of money. And yes, I have a sneaking suspicion this won’t change their personality. And yes, I really suspect the folks who were bullied are going to get bullied more. But there’s just something about these cocky arrogant guys who think they can take on pro fighters getting worked over that seems like justice.
Posted on October 24, 2009, in Television. Bookmark the permalink. 16 Comments.
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If the pros were really going for it, most bullies would be killed—or close to it—during the striking. Taking a punch is an art unto itself.
I saw one episode of this. The bully made the $10,000. I was a little bummed about that.
If you watch they limit what the pros are allowed to do. There are only 3 kinds of submission holds they are allowed to do. And in the striking they are really limited as well (no head kicks for instance) I also notice they really are holding back – probably for legal reasons.
The only time they do real total smack downs is when the other guy clearly has training. In those cases the bullies usually get most of the money but they get a pretty severe beating. One I saw was this Russian guy who won the $10,00 but was just beat to crap. It was kidney punch after kidney punch. He was throwing up afterwards.
love the show. never really was bullied growing up, but have always despised them.
The host of this show is so incredibly obnoxious it cracks me up. We’re really into UFC at our house so we were curious about this show, but we don’t really watch it very often. Turned it on the other day because the commercial said they were having a known UFC fighter on and we were hoping it’d be Clay Guida, but it wasn’t.
One of my fave MTV shows of recent years was Fear. At least I think it was recent years—maybe it’s way old now. Where they sent people into scary places that are supposedly haunted and made them do tasks throughout the night, like go to the prison’s electric chair and remove the sheet that’s covering it. It was so awesome because they were in the dark with flashlights, but the cameras all had night vision, so you can see everything, but they can’t. And all of their fear and hysteria is totally just from their own imaginations.
Personally, I love “Scare Tactics” They should mix that with Bully beatdown. Where, instead of scaring the crap out of friends, they should scare bullies. That would be better.
I guess there is a bit of a scandal over how “authentic” it is. I gather that for season 1 they put out a casting call asking for self-proclaimed bullies to enter. So it may be some idiot bully trying to get on TV and less the persecuted sending in tapes. That said, the fights look pretty real.
BTW – what’s funny is that the host, who is a mid-tier MMA fighter, admitted he was a goofy looking weakling in High School who was bullied a lot. (He showed a picture and he did look like he was trying to be one of the Backstreet Boys) So I guess he has a thing against bullies. An other fighter I saw said that through high school he was only 112 lbs and was picked on a lot. I suspect at least some of these guys became fighters due to bully problems in school.
Clark, do you ever watch The Ultimate Fighter reality show? It’s so awesome.
No. Is that the one on Spike? I’ve never gotten around to it. I probably should one day.
Interesting tidbit. I gather they are filming this show in SLC. (I don’t know if the first season was filmed here) The announcer in both seasons is Hans Olsen, a former BYU football player and local radio announcer on one of the sports stations. That suggests they are flying all the bullies in at minimum so they are getting a bit more than just $10,000. Of course coming to visit exciting Salt Lake City might be part of the punishment. (I kid, I kid)
I know Utah has a surprising number of MMA guys – especially in the Gracie Ju-Jitsu. (I’ve never trained in it – I did Aikido back in my 20′s but my business partner was training in it and his sensei trained with many of the big MMA names) Interestingly Heber used to have a rep for Free Style Wrestling as well. I had a friend who was on the Olympic team but quit because there was too big a gap between the top tier of the team and the bottom tier. i.e. he was really amazing, but the rest were even better. He was pretty amazing in MMA though as well. He once beat up an entire frat house at the UoU in what initially appeared to be a very uneven fight in one direction and turned into a very uneven fight in the other direction. (Oh the stories I could tell…)
Here’s a SL Trib Story on the show. Lots of interesting stuff if you’re in Utah.
On a related note — I don’t get the widespread interest in MMA. I have a startling number of friends who like the stuff. For some reason it just creates of distinct sense of revulsion in me. I can’t even stand the commercials.
My husband’s been into the MMA stuff since back in the Pride days (which was a different league that got bought by UFC awhile back). I never could stand it until I started watching the Ultimate Fighter reality show. It’s pretty dang funny, the drama these guys can stir up. The pranks they pull on each other, the crying that goes on…Who knew fighters were so emotional?
Kimbo Slice is on this season, and he is nothing like I thought he’d be. The most interesting fighters are the ones who seem like really nice, down-to-earth, intelligent guys. Kimbo is awesome.
Now I understand a lot of the technicalities of fighting and it’s really interesting. I actually find myself wishing there were more fights to watch. I can’t stand the blood, especially when someone gets a big gash and they show a close up of it. And sometimes someone will break a bone—that’s gnarly. Very rare, but it’s happened. But mostly what it’s about for me is if I like the personality of the guy fighting. I totally root for the guys I like, whether or not they’re the better fighter. Then you get the fights where you like both guys…ok I’ll stop now.
Geoff, I’m not really into watching the MMA stuff since I was in my 20′s. Back then those were the early days of UFC when you got to see tiny little Brazilians clobbering big heavyweight fighters. Then they changed the rules to be more like boxing rather than elimination rounds and it became far less interesting. To me at least. I confess though that I’ve never quite understood why some see regular boxing or wrestling as fine but slam MMA. (Not that you are doing that – but others certainly have.)
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not at all understanding why someone would become a pro fighter. Chances are your body will be messed up by the time you are in your early 40′s. But let’s be honest – that is if anything more pronounced in football players: especially defensive players.
As for blood and broken bones – my own sport of choice is climbing. And I suspect there’s probably more blood and broken bones in that sport than all the MMA fights combined. Plus it’s a sport where people regularly die. Yet no one would ever view climbing the way they do MMA.
Once again not a slam on those repelled by MMA. Just that I think things are a bit more complex when examined closely. But I think everyone reacts emotionally to various things in an unique way. I probably have the response to figure skating you do to MMA. (And once again, I rarely, rarely watch MMA)
Geoff’s not kidding, folks. I even found a video of him showing up to watch a fight in progress: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLDbGqJ2KYk.
Bully Beatdown’s ace in the hole is Mayhem Miller himself.
Let’s face it. The guy is the whole package: articulate, funny, and attractive. And he appears to genuinely *care* about the victims.
He appeals to the young men in his demographic who want to be like him as well as to women of nearly all demographics who want to find a guy *like* him.
Personally, I could watch him all day. Just wish he’d take his shirt off more…